This invention relates to apparatus for cooking food, and more particularly to a turntable for rotating food as it is cooked in a microwave oven.
It is well known that in the majority of microwave ovens, the distribution of microwave energy is not uniform throughout the microwave oven enclosure. As a result, "hot spots" can develop in food as it is cooked in a microwave oven, while other portions of the food may not be adequately cooked. To avoid this problem, turntables for rotating food have been built into microwave ovens. Alternatively, portable turntables have been constructed for use in such ovens. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,625,087 to Jorgensen et al. granted Nov. 25, 1986 and assigned to the assignee of this application, shows a low profile turntable with a dielectric base, a dielectric turntable over the base, and a plurality of ball bearings between the cover and base for permitting the turntable to rotate relative to the base. Between the turntable and base is an enclosed metal housing, with a spring motor inside the housing to drive the turntable. A plurality of prongs, insertable through openings in the cover, are positioned to engage notches formed in a ledge of the base, thus to prevent the turntable from rotating with respect to the base, particularly when there is no food carried by the turntable.
While the turntable featured in U.S. Pat. No. 4,625,087 has enjoyed substantial commercial success, efforts were undertaken to improve the turntable design in a number of respects, the emphasis being to provide a simpler, lower cost turntable of smaller size.
Consistent with these efforts, it is an object of the present invention to provide a food rotating device suitable for use in microwave ovens, simple in design and assembled at reduced cost.
Another object of the invention is to provide a positive acting, manually actuable detent switch for selectively locking and releasing the turntable of a food rotating device.
Another object of the invention is to provide an improved means for connecting the turntable of a microwave oven food rotating device with respect to a mechanism in the device for driving the turntable.
Yet another object of the invention is to provide a bearing assembly utilizing metallic ball bearings between a stationary metallic housing of a food rotating device, and a turntable rotating with respect to the housing.